Unspoken
by Mistress Krane
Summary: In which a few words from Sasuke prompt Naruto to finally go after what he really wants. But what's a pursuit without a few hiccups? Naruto / Sakura. oneshot.


**Title:** Unspoken

 **Authoress:** Mistress Krane

 **Summary:** In which a few words from Sasuke prompt Naruto to finally go after what he really wants. But what's a pursuit without a few hiccups? Naruto / Sakura. oneshot.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

 **A/N:** My first try at a NaruSaku, just in time for the holiday season! I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

* * *

Naruto stretched out his hand, watching in wonder as the small speck of white melted in his palm. He grinned, boosting himself half out of his window.

It was snowing.

While a rare occurrence in the warm and temperate climate of the Land of Fire, snow wasn't unheard of, and he planned to take full advantage of the situation. Quickly grabbing his jacket and the light blue scarf he'd been given by his team the year before, he leapt through the window and took to the streets.

He wasn't entirely sure where he was headed until he came to a stop near a familiar apartment complex. A head of pink hair was walking down the street, back to him. Entirely too wrapped up in his excitement and ignoring his screaming survival instincts, he scooped up a handful of snow and threw, aiming at her back.

Surprise, pride, and horror filled him all at once when his projectile connected with its target. Said target froze immediately. "Oh shit."

Before he could even blink a snowball was connecting with his forehead, cold and wet and fast. He hit the ground hard at the sheer force behind it and cursed. It felt like he'd just been pounded by a hammer.

"Idiot!"

Naruto swiped the snow from his eyes in time to see Sakura marching up to him, scowling. "Good morning, Sakura-chan," he greeted nervously, trying to back away as discreetly as possible. "Look! It's snowing!"

"I noticed." She grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up with one arm, setting him back on his feet. Even terrified, he couldn't help but appreciate the way her dark green scarf brought out her eyes. "That doesn't mean you can throw wet balls of mush at me."

She smashed another snowball on the top of his head and he winced. "Sorry. Guess I wasn't thinking." He grinned. "But it's snow – ow!"

"Do you listen to half of what I say?" she demanded. Her scowl softened as she let him go, turning in the opposite direction.

…that was it? A little concerned, Naruto hurried to catch up to his teammate and caught sight of her small frown. She pulled her hands out from her pockets, gloveless on her day off, and blew on them to warm them up.

"You okay?" he asked. If anything was wrong with Sakura he wanted to know – he hated seeing her upset. "Anything I can do to help?"

"Just the damn cold," she mumbled, and he could immediately tell she was lying. They'd traveled together through the snow plenty of times, and the cold had never deterred her violent reactions to him before.

He reached over to take her hands in his, ignoring her weak spluttering, and blew on them himself.

"You know you can tell me anything, Sakura-chan." And he was serious. She could talk to him about the rate of the world's slowest drying paint and he would hang on her every word if it made her even a speck happier.

He nuzzled her fingers with his nose, and crushed the hope that her pinkening cheeks were a result of anything other than the cold.

"Yeah, I know." Sakura's small, trusting smile still made his pulse stutter after all these years. And he knew without a doubt that it always would. "I just… My parents. This is my first winter without them."

His heart ached at the pain and sadness in her expression, remembering the brutal epidemic that had hit the village the previous year while they'd been away on an extended reconnaissance mission. Sakura's parents, unfortunately, had been among the casualties despite the hospital's best efforts.

He didn't say anything like 'it's going to be okay' or 'it'll get easier over time', and he didn't offer her unnecessary condolences. He knew that wasn't what she needed. Seeing her hunched and shivering just slightly, looking too unlike the strong and brave Sakura-chan he knew and loved, he held her hands to his mouth with one hand and reached around to gently pat her head with the other.

Emerald eyes snapped to his in surprise and all he could do was grin at her, wide and bright.

' _I'm here, Sakura-chan.'_

Her answering smile was distinctly watery and she shook her head once, as if to clear it. Then, visibly pulling herself together, he felt her fists clench tight.

"And what do you think you're doing, standing so close to me?"

He only had half a second to feel relieved before her fist collided with the back of his head and sent him stumbling forward a few inches.

"You're mean, Sakura-chan!" he yelled after her as she ran ahead of him, laughing.

XXX

"You're an idiot."

"Shut up, bastard." In a brief moment of clarity, Naruto realized he didn't even know what he was being insulted for this time. Having been called an idiot more often than not lately it could be any number of things. "What's your deal anyway?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He looked in Sakura's direction pointedly, where she was standing some distance away talking to Kakashi about the sparring session they'd just finished. "You're staring."

"Am not," he defended immediately, even as he found himself glancing back at the pinkette. Damn, he was right. Not that he was planning to admit that. But how could he not stare? She was beautiful, muscles still tensed from the adrenaline and panting slightly from exertion, eyes alert and glowing. Like a warrior, but prettier. Much prettier.

"You're even worse at hiding it than usual," Sasuke said bluntly.

Thinking about his actions over the past few months, he realized it was true. Lately his feelings had been overflowing, bursting through the carefully constructed dam he'd built long ago to maintain the tenuous relationship of best friend and teammate to one Haruno Sakura. It was getting harder and harder to treat her just like a friend when he wanted so much more.

Naruto glared. "What's it to you anyway?"

"You could screw something up." Sasuke wouldn't look at him, and Naruto realized with a pang just what a rift between the members of Team 7 would do to him. He liked to think they'd finally found a way to come together again and offer him a place to belong, and even if the stoic Uchiha would never admit to it, it was something for him to hold onto after all these years.

"Stop getting your panties in a twist," he mumbled. "You're worrying about nothing. I wasn't planning on doing anything anyway."

"I'm not worried. And I'm not saying don't do anything about it." Sasuke's face was carefully neutral. "I'm saying, if you're going to do something about it, don't be stupid."

He blinked at the Uchiha in disbelief. "What?"

Sasuke scowled. "Don't. Be. Stupid. If you can help it."

"How can you talk, bastard? You've never even had a girlfriend!"

"At least I have a brain." He cut off Naruto's protests. "Have you even tried to show her that you're still interested in her?"

"Of course I have!" He made it a point to ask her out for ramen at least once a week, despite all the bruises that came about. "She always says no."

"I'm not talking about your stupid attempts to bring her to Ichiraku. I mean, have you been trying to get her to see you as anything other than a friend?"

The implication was clear. _Have you been trying to get her to see you as a man?_

Naruto stopped, seriously considering the thought. Despite all of his joking and teasing, he wasn't sure how often he put real thought into his romantic pursuit of his pink-haired teammate. For all the bodily harm he received on a daily basis, most of it wasn't a result of any real offense from his playful banter. He almost winced at the thought of what would happen if he _really_ offended her. Was it really worth a steady stream of broken bones?

Glancing over at Sakura again, he found himself smiling as she wrinkled her nose and shouldered her laughing sensei. Of course. There was never a question about it being worth it.

The real question now was, how to go about it?

XXX

The scratching of her pen against the paper was the only sound in the room as Sakura pored over her notes on the hospital's most recent restructuring efforts, summarizing and organizing them on a separate document for Shizune's pre-approval. With the holidays coming around and more of the staff members requesting their annual time off, they needed to make sure that all of the necessary positions were covered in case of an emergency.

The hospital's archival reports dating back to the time of its establishment were kept in a small room on the top floor of the building. While the medic appreciated the view of the surrounding village afforded by the location, the lack of proper insulation ensured that she was shivering slightly as she worked.

Just another hour or two, she reassured her herself as she pulled herself up from the uncomfortable wooden chair. Then she could go home and fix herself a cup of hot chocolate and finish up that murder mystery she'd started last week.

The spines of the books slid beneath her fingers as she searched for the previous year's counts of critical cases brought in at this particular time of the month. It wasn't long before she was pulling the correct notebook from the shelf and flipping through the pages.

"What'cha got there?" Warm breath slid across the shell of her ear and she jumped slightly. A whiskered cheek and a curious blue eye told her exactly who it was that was leaning over her shoulder.

"Naruto! You shouldn't be up here," she replied, frowning.

As usual, he seemed completely unbothered by the fact. He grinned. "Shizune-nee-chan said I could find you in here. Sounds like permission enough to me." He paused. "What do you have to do in this dusty old room anyway?"

"Just read through some documents," she replied simply, focusing back in on the numbers on the pages. The faster she got this done, the sooner she could go home. She couldn't afford to be distracted by her loudmouthed teammate right now.

"Like what?" Sakura couldn't help but stiffen when she felt her friend's muscled body press against her back. He stepped closer, leaning down to get a better look at the small print. His warm, familiar scent filled her senses as he read over her shoulder. He smelled like sunshine and winter. "Patient files from last year? What do you need to look at these for?"

She made a conscious effort not to lean back into the welcomed source of heat. "I'm compiling some data to try and predict this year's patient flows for the holiday season. We have a lot of our regular staff out for the next couple of weeks, so I need to make sure we have enough resources to stay covered."

His throaty chuckle reverberated through her back, and she tried valiantly to fight a blush at the feeling. As much as she wanted to tell him to move, having her own personal heater so close _did_ feel good after hours of freezing her ass off.

"So diligent, like always," he said, pride seeping into his voice. His tone turned curious. "That means you need these too, right?"

He reached around her to grab the books, his inner arm brushing her shoulder. She was acutely aware of the ripple of his muscles as he flexed with the movement, and this time she couldn't repress a shiver. What the hell was wrong with her?

"Are you cold, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, concerned. His bright cerulean eyes were worried as he regarded her. He didn't seem to notice the fact that he had himself halfway wrapped around her, but then again, when did he ever notice things like that?

"I'm fine," she snapped, irritated with him and with herself for reacting in such a strange way to her lifelong best friend being a little closer than normal.

The warmth from her back disappeared, and she bit her tongue to stop herself from voicing her protest out loud. She turned just in time to see Naruto pull his jacket off and set it over her shoulders. Her eyes softened.

"There you go! Nice and warm." He seemed quite pleased with himself.

"It smells like ramen," she noted dryly as she pulled her arms through the large sleeves. "When's the last time you washed this thing?"

She chose not to be overly concerned with his thoughtful silence as she weaved around her teammate to move back to her place at the table. If Shota-san and Ryouko-san were going to be out, she could at least ask Kanagawa if he wanted an extra shift…

"Two months!" he exclaimed, interrupting her mental planning. Her blonde companion was grinning at her like an idiot across the table. "Bastard number two spilled ink all over it so I had to throw it in the washer."

She sighed. Nowhere near his record of a year and a half, so the jacket was still fairly sanitary. Still, she made a mental note to take a shower once she made it back home.

It was quiet for a while as she continued her research. Naruto, to her surprise, stayed silent. No questions, no annoying foot tapping. Wary, she glanced up at him to find that he was staring out the window at the snow that was beginning to fall again. He looked oddly contemplative.

He really had grown a lot over the years. The baby fat from their preteen years had long ago been replaced by the chiseled features of a grown man. His spiky blonde hair was longer now, almost the length of his late father's. The resemblance was becoming more apparent by the day, and not only physically. He was sneaking up on her more often nowadays, as evidenced by earlier. And she was no rookie. She'd even caught Tsunade complaining once that the damned brat was going to give her a heart attack if he kept popping into her office unannounced like he so often did.

Her shishou, despite her complaints, was subtly grooming him for his spot as her future successor. He had been sent on several diplomatic trips for the village in the past year, and had done exceedingly well with all of them. He was being shown the basics of administrative policies and structure. Sakura, being Tsunade's apprentice, had also given him some tips of her own in maneuvering the finer points of foreign diplomatic etiquette.

As if feeling her stare, Naruto turned to catch her eye, smiling. "What's up, Sakura-chan? Distracted by how sexy I am?"

Sakura kicked the front of his chair, reinforcing the tip of her foot with chakra for good measure. He toppled over with a yelp and she smiled, shaking her head.

No matter how much he grew up, screwing with him never got any less satisfying.

XXX

Maybe asking Kiba for help with getting Sakura to notice him wasn't the best idea.

 _Trust me lover boy, this'll get her to notice you_ real _quick._

The blonde picked at his shredded shirt for the eighth time in the past five minutes, thinking himself lucky for not having worn one of his favorites today. Dried blood from the shallow cuts he'd received from the canine enthusiast made the material a little stiffer than usual, but Kurama was already working to close up the wounds (with a brief eye roll at his romance-related antics). The cold was biting against the bare skin exposed by the rips in the fabric.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, Naruto strolled casually through the village streets, ignoring the pointed stares coming in his direction. Now to find Sakura-chan.

He followed the lines of brightly lit stores for a few blocks, and finally caught sight of a blob of pink hair pushing through a shop door. "Sakura-chan!" he called, cupping his hands over his mouth.

Even from a distance he could see her petite figure perk up in recognition as she caught sight of him. Like a cute little cotton candy-colored puppy. By the time he made his way over to her she frowning, and he stifled a laugh at the mental image of a tail wagging anxiously behind her.

"What the hell happened to you?" she demanded, medic mode kicking in as she gave him a quick visual assessment.

"Just killing some time with Kiba," he supplied with a shrug.

"By serving as his meat shield?" Sakura stepped closer, placing both hands on his chest to inspect the wounds. Her fingers traced along the cuts, and he shivered at her touch. No matter how many times she patched him up, he could never get used to the feel of her hands on him.

"Would it make it easier for you if I took the shirt off?" he asked, his voice sounding slightly rough even to his own ears. She looked up at him sharply.

Before she had the chance to respond he grabbed the hem of his shirt and pulled slowly, displacing her hands as he lifted the fabric over his head. He watched her carefully the entire time, noting as she tried and failed to keep her eyes trained anywhere but on him. A light coat of pink dusted her cheeks, and he let himself feel a little bit hopeful.

Was it working?

"Turn around," Sakura ordered, clearing her throat just slightly.

Biting back the sudden urge to grin, Naruto obeyed.

Kiba had been thorough in roughing him up, he thought thankfully as Sakura's healing chakra warmed his back. His muscles relaxed at the familiar feeling, and not for the first time he considered making Sakura his personal medic as his first act as Hokage. As always, the mental image of her reaction to such a decree had him derailing that train of thought immediately.

"Again." Naruto obliged, turning around to face his healer. She placed her palms flat against his chest this time as the green light flickered between them. Despite the light extent of the injury she was utterly focused on her task, and his gaze softened as he watched her in silence.

He caught her hands in his as her chakra faded, and her emerald eyes shot up in surprise. Gods, he could get lost in them forever.

"Thank you, Sakura-chan." _For_ _everything_.

His best friend seemed lost for words at his sincerity, and bewildered by the force behind it. He couldn't help but think that even confused, she was adorable.

"Don't get hurt doing stupid things," she finally said, a little cautiously. "You can't just keep coming to me to heal you every time you get a little scraped up."

In a good mood, he bounced alongside her as she picked up her bags and began walking up the street. "You don't have to heal me every time. If I get a paper cut you can just kiss it — "

A wad of fabric cut him off mid-sentence as Sakura threw a familiar bundle across his face. He grabbed it before it could hit the ground and realized it was the jacket he had lent her the week before.

"Shut up and put that on before you catch a cold. The last thing I want to do is spend Christmas wiping your nose for you," she groused.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at her gruff concern, pulling his arms through the sleeves and reveling in the smell of Sakura's fabric softener. She had washed it for him. He threw an arm across his friend's shoulders and grabbed a handful of her grocery bags, all while ignoring her protests.

"Wanna grab some Ichiraku?" Knowing it was coming didn't make the impending blow to his stomach any less painful. He winced.

"Are you ever not thinking about ramen?"

Naruto glanced down at her, considering. "It's either ramen, or you," he said honestly.

Sakura lost her footing for a split second in surprise. He coughed to mask his laugh, turning his head in the other direction when she looked up at him suspiciously.

"How about that place over there?" Sakura asked suddenly, pointing to a small stand notorious for its all-vegetarian menu. "I heard they have some of the best hiyayakko in town."

Feeling his stomach sink in on itself at the thought, Naruto made quick work of disentangling himself from his suddenly grinning companion. "Actually, uh, I think I've got anywhere else to be right now."

While he was fast, Sakura was much faster when she wanted to be. She had his arm caught in a vice-like grip before he could even so much as look the other way.

"Oh come on," she insisted, dragging him toward the small establishment that he would normally refuse to eat at even if it were the only place open. In the entire village. During a time of severe famine. "And it's your treat, considering I patched you up just now."

Sensing that there was no escape, Naruto resigned himself to a dinner of gross, non-filling food. At least Sakura was going to look cute while she forced him to eat whatever healthy super food she had in mind.

Cheered by the thought, he followed his pink-haired companion into the stand with a grin of his own. Maybe Kiba knew what he was doing after all.

XXX

The snow crunched beneath her boots as she climbed the steps to her apartment, the sound loud in the silence of the late evening. All of the paperwork for Tsunade and all of the documentation for the hospital was finally filed and put away, much to her relief. She could finally kick back and relax.

Sakura stopped short at the top of the stairs in surprise. Naruto was standing outside her door, hands shoved in his pockets. She got the distinct feeling that she had been seeing a whole lot of him the past few weeks.

"Naruto?"

He smiled sheepishly, stepping back so she could unlock the door. "Sorry I'm late, I know we said we'd meet at around nine but I got caught up training with Ero-sennin. Looks like I'm still here before everyone else though."

The warm air from inside of her apartment did nothing to quell her confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Naruto followed her inside, setting his sandals down beside the door. He didn't join her in her small kitchenette, choosing to make himself comfortable on the couch.

"Don't you remember?" He gave her a strange look. "Me, you, bastards one and two, and Kakashi-sensei said that we were going to meet up here to help you decorate your tree tonight."

"Oh shit!" With all the work that had come up at the last minute, it had completely slipped her mind. She rubbed at her forehead as it all came back to her. "Right. Sai mentioned a few days ago that he would be out of town tonight and wouldn't be able to make it."

"Sasuke-teme caught me on my way over and said he was busy too," Naruto sighed, though she thought she saw a flash of guilt come and go from his expression. "Any word from sensei?"

"He's probably helping Santa cross the street or something." She wrinkled her nose at the variation of his standard excuse that Kakashi had offered at training the previous week. "Looks like it's just the two of us for the night."

From the corner of her eye, she caught Naruto practically beaming at her. "Ne, Sakura-chan, does that mean this is kinda like a date?"

"Not at all."

He pouted at her immediate reply, bright blue eyes falling to the couch as his lower lip jutted out. Even she had to admit that the look was cute on him, but she wasn't about to tell him that.

The microwave dinged and she pulled out the plate of cookies she had been warming up as a snack. Milk, she reminded herself. She should have enough left over to pour a glasses for the both of them. "Hey, would you mind grabbing the box of ornaments from the closet next to the bathroom?"

"Aye aye, Sakura-taichou," Naruto said, giving her a mock salute. She shook her head as she watched him walk down the hall and out of sight.

As she set down the cookies and milk on her coffee table, making sure that coasters were readily available, Sakura considered the shifting dynamic between herself and her long time best friend.

Lately, the blonde had been… _pressing his luck_ , was the only way she knew how to put it. Getting closer to her than usual, being touchier than usual (which was actually saying something), and she kept on catching him staring at her in a way that she didn't know quite how to respond to.

Was _what_ he was doing bothering her? She played with the idea briefly. Over her twenty two years of living she'd been in love with Sasuke for sixteen, until the realization upon his return to the village that her love for him had only been that of a friend and teammate. It had taken time, and lots of it, but he had slowly come to start trusting her and accepting her as his friend, comrade, and teammate. Team 7 wasn't as it was in the past, but they were working together and working well. They were truly a _team_ again.

Since that life-altering point in which Sasuke stopped being the center of her romantic universe, she had agreed to a number of blind dates set up for her by Ino. Some hadn't turned out as disastrously as she'd expected and some had left her positively reeling. Male attention and contact wasn't necessarily something that was new to her.

Was she attracted to Naruto? Yes. She had long ago acknowledged that her teammate was one of the best-looking males in the village.

Did she care for him? She would kill for him. There was no question about it.

But did that mean that she wanted more than friendship with him?

She wasn't sure that she knew the answer anymore.

She lit the fireplace and made her way over to her small radio, sighing. The little device alternated between static and voices as she played with the knobs in search of a station of holiday music. An upbeat, pop-like song came on, and the sound of the bells in the backdrop indicated her success.

"Hey, I love this song!" Sakura looked up to see that Naruto had set the box of ornaments beside the tree and was currently bobbing his head along with the music, a slight bounce in his step. The sight made her giggle. "Dance with me, Sakura-chan!"

He pulled her over to him, swaying to the quick beat and singing loudly and off-key. Not able to resist, she found herself laughing as she followed his lead. He actually wasn't the worst dancer.

"You're a bad singer," she told him between laughs. She spun at his prompting, grinning like mad while he continued to sing at her with his pretend microphone in his hand.

"Cause there's only _you_ baby this time of year," he sang, pointing at her for emphasis. She winced as his last few notes went severely sharp. "And that's all I _need_!"

"Enough, enough," Sakura declared, pressing her hands over her theatrical friend's mouth to silence him. His voice was muffled against her palms as he finished out the last few lines of the song with a few hand flourishes.

The music faded before long, and the musical vibrations against her skin ceased. When it seemed safe to do so, she carefully pulled her hands from his mouth. A goofy grin refused to leave his face. She suspected she didn't look much different.

"Come on, you idiot. We have to get this tree decorated."

"Don't pretend you didn't have fun too," he teased, padding over to join her near the box of ornaments.

"Oh yeah, because losing my hearing is always so much fun," Sakura returned with an eye roll. She picked up a candy cane and a bell to start.

Naruto dug around for a red ornament with gold trim, along with a silver bow. He shook some of the silver glitter off on top of her head in retaliation. "My singing is amazing, thank you very much."

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll be receiving an invitation to join the choir of cats that live around the corner any day now." She brushed the offending sparkles from her hair and flicked them in his direction, wrinkling her nose.

"As long as I get my solo!" His wide grin showed off his perfectly white teeth and whiskered cheeks, and she couldn't shake off the mental image of him sitting by the dumpster and yowling along with the group of felines she passed by on her way to work. She snorted a laugh.

They worked that way for a while, hanging ornaments and trading insults and jokes with holiday music playing softly in the background. Sometimes she would catch him watching her as she slipped into the blind spot around the opposite side of the tree, almost like he was afraid she wouldn't emerge again if he took his eyes off her.

In turn, she was acutely aware that her gaze hardly ever strayed from him either. The glow of the fire bounced off of the gold of his hair and the blues of his eyes in a way that caught her attention and held it, to the point where she had to make a conscious effort to redirect her eyes or risk being caught staring.

The atmosphere in her living room was warm and gentle, comforting in a way that reminded her all too much of her blonde companion despite the strange undercurrent of tension that hung between them. She had noticed it building lately but had chosen to ignore it, because it wasn't necessarily bad. Just…different.

Sakura reached down to grab the star, the last ornament in the box. She was again faced with the problem she continued to encounter on an annual basis: getting the thing on top of the stupid tree. The spot was just out of her reach, and she always risked knocking the whole tree over in her attempts to get it in just the right position.

"Why are you glaring at the star?" Naruto asked curiously. He inspected the golden object closely, as if he could garner the reason for her ire from its appearance.

"I always have trouble putting the damned thing on the tree," she explained, eyes flickering back and forth between the star and the peak of the tree. Decisions, decisions. There was always the option of asking Naruto to do it seeing as her teammate was a whole head taller than her, but if she was being honest she wanted to finish the tree herself.

It didn't take long for Naruto to decide for her. Sakura squeaked when she felt herself being lifted into the air by the waist and carried over to the tree. "Naruto! What are you doing?"

"Helping!" He stopped beside the tree, waiting. "Go ahead, Sakura-chan."

She hesitated for a moment before reaching over to carefully set the star in place. Was it straight? There was no way in hell she was going to have a crookedly topped tree. "How does it look?"

"It looks perfect," Naruto said softly. His strange tone made her glance down at him, only to find that he wasn't looking at the star at all. Sakura felt the heat flood to her cheeks.

He set her down slowly, cerulean eyes intent and sincere as he held her gaze. The tension that had been building between them solidified to an almost tangible current, and his hands on her waist suddenly felt too hot. Embarrassed, her eyes shot to the ground. She felt him stiffen.

"Sakura-chan." He said her name like an entreaty, raw with emotion. Pain, quiet desperation, and longing so intense it brought a physical ache to her chest. _Why did he feel so strongly for her?_

His hand, usually strong and steady, was trembling slightly as he brought it up to cradle her cheek. The tender gesture prompted her to look up, and what she saw in his expression made her eyes sting with tears.

Naruto—her rock, her stability, her constant support—something inside of him was slowly breaking, right in front of her.

The sight sent her into a sudden panic, and her hand came up to steady his against her cheek. The pain in her chest throbbed in response to his. "Naruto, what in the world..?"

She saw a myriad of emotions flash just below the surface of his pained features. An urgent need to help him in some way screamed at her from the depths of her being, but she couldn't. Because she knew that it was her fault that he was hurting in the first place.

"I don't know what to do with myself anymore," he murmured, his voice almost lost beneath the crackle of the fireplace. He watched her through half lidded eyes, more serious than she had ever seen him, and her pulse sped. His handsome face inched closer to hers, as if of its own volition.

"Stop me if you don't want this, Sakura." His voice was rough and low, and his omission of the affectionate –chan made her weak at the knees. Her stomach was knotted in anticipation as his breath mingled with hers. "Please."

His voice broke on the last word, and it shook her enough to gently bring her palm to his cheek. He stopped at the contact, and she felt his hand tighten its hold on her waist.

"Naruto," she exhaled, not moving a single muscle. If they did this, she had to know. " _Why?"_

She felt the breath leave his body all at once, and he let his head drop to her shoulder. "Have you been blind these past ten years?" he mumbled against her shirt. "Or am I just really bad at this?"

"Not that, you idiot," she retorted, sucking some much needed air into her lungs. Gods that was intense. "Why _me_?" The insecurities that she had refused to acknowledge even to herself started pouring out. "You could have anyone you wanted in the entire village. Someone nicer or prettier or stronger. So why?"

He raised his head to look at her, eyebrows scrunched together in genuine confusion.

"It's only ever been you." The words came like they were the most natural thing in the world to him. "You're scary when you're mad, but you're the most caring person I've ever known. You always try your best, no matter what. No matter how many times you fail, you get back up and become ten times stronger because of it." He paused, looking almost angry. "There is no one kinder than you, or stronger. I've never seen anyone more beautiful in my entire life, and I never will because no one like that exists."

His words sounded like a promise, and Naruto's promises were more precious than anything else.

Tears filled her eyes and she finally _felt_ it. Felt just how deeply his feelings for her ran and, to her surprise, that her feelings for him ran just as deep.

Naruto was her best friend, confidante, and the person she cared the most about. He could make her smile and laugh and forget about everything else for a brief moment in which there was only him and her against the world. They'd been there for each other through thick and thin, had saved each other's lives countless times. And she couldn't afford to lose him.

Naruto, who she had known for just over a decade, meant the world to her.

She needed him.

Despite the fact that Sasuke had been absent for years, losing him would be like losing a piece of herself. But losing Naruto would be like losing the sun, like losing so much of herself that there wouldn't be enough pieces left to put back together.

How could she have been so blind for so many years?

At the sight of her tears, Naruto visibly panicked. "Shit, did I say something wrong? I'm sorry Sakura-chan, you're not actually scary at all, it's more of an intimidating kind of feel once you get around the whole 'I'm going to murder you right here right now' vibe."

Sakura shook her head at his idiocy, shaking her head to force back her tears and grabbing his face with both hands. "What happened to calling me Sakura?" she asked, smiling slowly.

He froze in disbelief, his cheeks turning red beneath her fingertips. "U-um, Sakura?"

Sakura pulled him closer, and saw the hope beginning to bud in the depths of his gaze. She offered him her warmest smile, feeling her cheeks flush to match his.

"I love you, Naruto." The words rang truer than any she'd ever spoken.

Naruto's breath caught in his throat, his eyes widening. He was silent for a few moments, and Sakura's heart was beating too loudly in her ears. Then the brightest grin she'd ever seen on him spread across his face. His hands came up to catch hers, and he leaned in just close enough to whisper against her lips.

"And I love you, Sakura-chan."

He closed the distance between them and kissed her, and she could feel his happiness and love seep into her all at once. Years of his adoration and devotion, along with his pent up passion and frustration, flowed through her in a wave as he pulled her flush against him. He tasted sweet like chocolate, and she suspected he'd stolen a cookie or two from the plate she'd set out. The thought made her smile against his lips.

He pulled back slightly to peck her lips once, twice, before placing one more on her forehead.

"Tell me this is really happening," he breathed against her skin. His voice was soft, like he was afraid of waking himself up from a dream.

Sakura brought their joined hands together, and kissed the tops of his shyly. She wanted to tell him that he didn't have to worry anymore, and that she wasn't going anywhere. But the only way she knew how was to show him, which would take time.

Gentle emerald connected with adoring cerulean, and a mutual sort of understanding passed between them. Years of nonverbal communication as teammates was shifting into something different altogether, but the transition felt like it had been a long time coming. Now, they were where they were meant to be.

' _I'm right here, Naruto. Always.'_

If time was what they needed, that was perfectly fine. There was no one else she'd rather spend it with.

* * *

 **A/N:** I really do apologize if the pacing felt a little off, especially there at the very end. But I was honestly clueless on how to resolve everything neatly so. Here we are. This pairing, for all its apparent simplicity, was harder to reconcile than I was expecting. All things considered I did enjoy pumping this out; please let me know how I did!


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